With his stature in the octagon losing steam, former UFC champion Conor McGregor appears desperate to find other ways to live up to his 'Notorious' moniker. Since losing by TKO to Dustin Poirier for the second time in a row, the Irishman has presented a more volatile and unhinged version of himself online. Part of that act has included threatening the lives of his opponents. McGregor appeared to threaten Poirier and his family with something that would happen "in their sleep" immediately after his second defeat to Poirier back at UFC 264. With McGregor's return to the Octagon still a long way off as he's opted for a bit part in a movie instead he's taken to Twitter once more in search of attention. His most recent target is fellow former champion Michael Bisping, with whom he has previously clashed. This latest incident seemed to have started with a somewhat innocuous tweet from McGregor, in which he wrote, “All these little twerps wanna be actors now. Little twerps, There’s Only One Mac Daddy. Bad to the bone but with a good heart. Action with Jake Gyl or Rom com with Sarah Jessica. Bisping, member that show you were in. Ye me neither.” Bisping responded to the comment. “I was a just befuddled,” he said on his Believe You Me podcast. “I wasn’t annoyed or anything, just scratching my head going, ‘Where’s that coming from out of the blue? He’s all excited, he’s had his first beer and he’s doing a big show with Jake Gyllenhaal, god bless him. Good for fucking you. Well done. Why have you gotta throw shade my way? I don’t get it.” It seems as though that response upset McGregor. He took to twitter soon after to say. “Bisping you’ll do fuck all you little sprinter. I’ll cave your head in.” That was followed by “Shit fighter, shit actor. Sirius XM head.” Then McGregor posted a voice note in which he said: “Do you want to go to war man, yeah? Do you want to go to f**king war? We’ll go to war with you, yeah. Security, you little sausage of a thing. I’ll have security set you up. Where do you stay when you’re in Vegas again, pal? Little Apex fucking pad.” “Keep my name out of your f**king mouth in any type of threatening behavior, or I’ll walk through your front door. Yup, Laguna, you little dope. Yup the Mancs, yeah! Go back where you belong you little clown, you little sprinter.” McGregor has been a boisterous presence in MMA since joining the UFC in 2013. The UFC encouraged and rewarded this behavior by propelling him to stardom within the organization, culminating in his UFC featherweight title victory over Jose Aldo in 2015. McGregor's stardom grew beyond the confines of the cage following that fight, thanks to his two-fight series with Nate Diaz and subsequent UFC lightweight title win over Eddie Alvarez. McGregor's most recent victory inside the cage or ring came in 2020, when he defeated Donald Cerrone via TKO. He then suffered two defeats to Poirier.

SatBellator .'s 286 will take place in LONG BEACH, Calif., and at 7 p.m. ET, you may watch the live video stream and get the results (4 p.m. PT). Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, California is the venue for the event. After the preliminary matches on MMA Junkie, the main card airs on Showtime. Patricio Freire, the featherweight champion (33-5 MMA, 21-5 BMMA), will face challenger Adam Borics in the main fight (18-1 MMA, 9-1 BMMA). A.J. McKee, a former featherweight champion (18-1 MMA, 18-1 BMMA), fights Spike Carlyle (14-3 MMA, 1-0 BMMA), who failed to make weight for the event, in the co-feature. Official Bellator 286 results include: MAIN CARD (Showtime 10 p.m. ET) Champ Patricio Freire vs. Adam Borics – for featherweight title Spike Carlyle vs. A.J. McKee Jeremy Kennedy vs. Aaron Pico Juan Archuleta vs. Enrique Barzola PRELIMINARY CARD (MMA Junkie 7 p.m. ET) Nick Browne vs. Islam Mamedov Vladimir Tokov vs. Jay Jay Wilson Khadzhimurat Bestaev vs. Khalid Murtazaliev Sumiko Inaba vs. Nadine Mandiau Weber Almeida vs. Ryan Lilley Dominic Clark vs. Lance Gibson Mike Hamel vs. Max Rohskopf Cee Jay Hamilton vs. Richard Palencia Keoni Diggs vs. Ricardo Seixas Miguel Peimbert vs. Bobby Seronio III

Khamzat Chimaev continues to draw fire from Chris Avila for the weight-miss that rocked UFC 279 earlier this month. Chimaev was originally supposed to face Nate Diaz in his final UFC appearance, but he was denied the chance when he failed to make weight by 7.5 pounds. Due to this, promotion was forced to change the pay-per-view matchup of Diaz and Chimaev against alternative opponents in Tony Ferguson and Kevin Holland with only 24 hours' notice. Both fighters were victorious—Diaz guillotined Ferguson in the fourth round, and Chimaev dominated Holland for a first-round D'arce—but Avila was left bitter by the events of the previous week. He criticized Chimaev for his improper behaviour on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. “It was a crazy two weeks. Well, we were out there for two weeks, but the whole time, yeah, it got crazier and crazier day by day,” said Avila. “That whole turnaround was f—king insane. The whole Khamzat thing was very unprofessional. Good things happen to good people, so Nate’s a f—king good dude and f—king Khamzat’s not too good of a dude. He’s a piece of s—t for f—king missing weight, and that’s on him. He ain’t going to get that bag, so whatever. That was 2-0 for Nate, dog. That was two wins in one week.” Avila also commented on the conflict between Diaz and Chimaev, which was postponed. According to his perspective, "Borz" was headed for the same destiny as "El Cucuy," which would have been the first setback of his professional career. “All that talk of Khamzat’s over here going to destroy, whoop, whoop, whoop, was bulls—t anyway,” said Avila. “I think the fight would’ve turned out the same way it did with Tony, 100 percent. I believe so, yeah, either standing or the same way, unless all Khamzat wanted to do was f—king hold on for dear life, scared as f—k.” Diaz has switched his attention to other projects, including the founding of Real Fight Inc., now that his UFC contract is up. Avila is one of the first fighters the organization has signed that "fits the slogan of "Real Ninjas. Real Fighters. Real Shit." On the pay-per-view part of Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva next month, the Team Diaz product makes a comeback in the boxing ring against YouTube personality Dr. Mike, actual name Mikhail Varshavski.

At the weigh-ins for tomorrow's Bellator 286, Liver King competed in an eating contest with Paulo Costa and Patricio Freire. The fitness influencer rose to prominence online due to his incredible physique. He went viral for promoting a natural lifestyle based on the nine tenets, and videos of him eating raw meat went viral. King has recently become more involved in the MMA community, garnering attention for his back and forth online with former UFC middleweight title challenger Costa earlier this month. While some agree with King's philosophy, others believe he's putting on a show to gain popularity. He was recently in Las Vegas for an episode of Dana White's Contender Series at the UFC Apex. Costa shot at him and challenged him to something he didn't say. During the Bellator 286 weigh-ins on Friday, Costa and King had the opportunity to settle their differences by competing in an eating contest. As expected, King brought out a massive amount of liver for them both to feast on and see who could eat the most. Card star Freire was also present, but he couldn't compete with the aptly named Liver King. In the competition, Paulo Costa was seen drinking his signature secret juice' to push down the raw meat. His plate appears to be full with fewer pieces of liver consumed, whereas King is wolfing down the small cuts of meat quickly and easily. After avenging his April loss to AJ McKee, Freire will compete for the Bellator featherweight title against rising Hungarian prospect Adam Borics in the main event of Saturday's Bellator 286.

Despite being a Jiu Jitsu master and dominating on the ground, Dern has failed to secure a submission in each of her last two appearances, despite putting both Marina Rodriguez and Tecia Torres in extremely vulnerable positions. While the 29-year-old strawweight contender isn't suddenly doubting her ability on the ground, Dern admits to making mistakes by displaying a little too much sportsmanship. “They’re tough. These are the best of the best,” Dern told The Fighter vs. The Writer about her level of competition. “We’re not playing here. These are former champions, champions, and they’re not going to tap because they feel pressure. I feel like with Tecia, I’m on the kimura and I’m doing it, I feel like 98 percent of the people would tap. You have to be a little bit mean like just rip it. Maybe they’ll tear their shoulder and have to have surgery or something like that. Of course, that’s not my goal but we’re all adults here. They’re going to try to hurt me. Because she has so much experience in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Dern has spent a significant portion of her MMA career trying to improve the other aspects of her game to match what she can already do in grappling. Dern is proud of the work she's put in to become a complete fighter, but learning every other aspect of the sport while ignoring her grappling may have cost her those recent submissions. She promises that if Yan Xiaonan gets stuck in similar bad spots as Rodriguez or Torres at UFC Vegas 61, her opponent will either tap out or be forced to take a limb back home to California with her. “I lost that timing to get that submission and not letting it get away so definitely, I’ve been working on that for this fight,” Dern said. “I guess being a little bit meaner and hey, we all signed up for this and we’re on a different level now. I’m excited.” Give us your thoughts if you think Mckenzie Dern can pull off a submission victory at UFC Vegas 61!

After Anthony Joshua missed a Monday deadline to sign the contract, the heavyweight titleholder said that a planned defense against his British opponent on December 3 was no longer in the cards and that he would instead face Mahmoud Charr. Fury, though, asserted that he could have the rest of Thursday to complete the transaction. He might, of course, alter his mind once more. “My promoter Frank Warren convinced me to let Queensberry carry on negotiating with your team this week, despite me knowing that you were never going to do this fight,” Fury said, according to Sky Sports. Fury went on: “So the deadline was Monday. I allowed Frank to continue doing meetings with your team and your broadcasters and all that. Now we have BT, DAZN and ESPN all on the same page. They are happy with everything, they are all ready to rock and roll.” And, finally, he added: “Everybody is done. If you’re a man, and if you’ve got any sort of dignity and pride about you, you’ll get this contract signed today. This is it. There is no more days, weeks, months. You’ve had the contract now for over two weeks and you still haven’t signed it. “Show the public that you’re really the big coward that I know you are, and don’t sign it. I don’t care either way if you sign it or you don’t, it makes no difference to me at all. You’re a beaten man and I’m a world champion. I’m chucking you a massive bone, but I know I can punch a face in so I’m willing to give you an opportunity.” Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn expressed confusion about Fury's most recent deadline to Sky Sports. “I don’t want to get involved with back and forths that are going to negatively impact this fight being made, but to be honest, we are quite baffled by the situation,” Hearn said. “Firstly, when we agreed terms for the fight, it took us over a week to receive a draft contract. We have not had that contract for 14 days. “Over the next week, we’ve worked tirelessly and had a number of meetings with Queensberry to get the contract in some kind of decent shape. Last Monday, we sent our final draft of the contract to Queensberry, only to see that Tyson Fury had publicly pulled out of the fight and it was no longer on the table. “Yesterday we then received comments back from Queensberry on our final draft of the agreement, of which is now being reviewed. I’m not sure why Tyson Fury keeps setting unrealistic deadlines whilst also offering the fight to a number of other heavyweights for the selected date. “If he is serious about the fight being made, I suggest he allows Matchroom and Queensberry to keep working hard to make the fight, of which everyone has been trying hard to do. “You can’t publicly keep pulling out of a fight and then restart negotiations when there has been so many positive conversations had. We’ll see what happens from here.” Following Usyk's two victories against Joshua, Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) was anticipated to meet the Ukrainian for the undisputed heavyweight title. Fury didn't want to wait, but Usyk said he wouldn't fight until next year. That is why he chose Joshua, who despite his misfortunes is still a desirable opponent. From a financial perspective, a Fury-Joshua battle may be the largest in British boxing history.

Islam Makhachev, according to Javier Mendez, will win the lightweight title. After that, he'll face featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. Makhachev will face Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 280 for his first shot at the title. Makhachev has faced a number of doubters among the lightweight elite in the build-up to the fight, claiming that he is unproven and will not dominate Oliveira. Oliveira himself stated that he has faced tougher opponents, and his coach argued that Makhachev's greatest strength, his wrestling, will not be sufficient to take Oliveira down. But for Makhachev's coach, Mendez, it's all just noise. He expects Makhachev to dominate like he has his previous ten opponents on fight night. While speaking to Submission radio Mendez said “Well, first of all, he’s gonna take him down,’ “It’s just a matter of when, but he will take him down, and Charles is not gonna be able to stand. If Islam doesn’t want to stand, he will not, he’ll be taken down. He is second to Khabib in being able to take people down, and he will go down. Charles will go down. Charles is not known to be a wrestler. “ “The bottom line is, the thing about this fight is, wanna stand up? Okay, let’s go. Going to the ground? Okay, let’s go. So, we’ll see who can dominate where when that time comes. But we’re prepared to dominate in the standup, we’re prepared to dominate on the ground. And they are too. They’re well prepared. He’s a champion for a reason.” Makhachev is the hand-picked successor to Khabib Nurmagomedov, the former champion and lightweight GOAT, who vacated the title without ever losing a fight. As a result, expectations for Makhachev are high, but for good reason, according to Mendez. What he's seen in the practice room contributes to his confidence in Makhachev heading into the lightweight title fight. So he expects Makhachev to show the world what he and Khabib already know at UFC 280. “In all the history, since 2012, since Khabib’s been doing sparring with me in front of my eyes, there has been nobody that’s ever taken a round from him. No one’s ever won a sparring session. Not a sparring session with Khabib ever. Except one man. Islam,” Mendez said. “He’s the only one that has won rounds from Khabib. Never won a session, but he’s won rounds. And I’ve never seen that. Winning the championship would be just the beginning for Makhachev. The No. 3-ranked lightweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings is on a 10-fight winning streak, but he has yet to face many of the division's top talent, which means he will have plenty of opportunities as champion. One that appears to be on many people's minds is a rematch with former champion Conor McGregor, who had one of the most heated rivalries with Khabib. Mendez, on the other hand, prefers another name that has recently been thrown into the lightweight title picture featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. Let us know in the comments how many of you think that Islam Makhachev dominates Charles Oliviera and becomes the new UFC Lightweight Champion.

Guido Cannetti's perspective on his life's work and his professional fighting career has significantly improved. After experiencing discouraging losses, the 42-year-old UFC bantamweight struggled for many years to feel happy and content with his MMA career. Cannetti (9-6 MMA, 3-5 UFC), who will make another appearance in the cage this Saturday against Randy Costa (6-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 211, is content and at peace with both his career accomplishments and what may lie ahead. Mentally speaking, Cannetti has now reached the location he has been looking for for a very long time, a sensation that eluded him for a very long time. “Man, we’ve done interviews with me crying and others like today where I’m feeling my best, I’m happy, smiling, and giving it my all,” Cannetti told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “With that alone, I’m at peace. Feeling great, that for me, it’s glory – being able to get to where I wanted to get and how I wanted to feel. Because I just wasn’t able to find a way to show up in a way where I could feel good and give it 100 percent. Now that I’m doing it, I feel joyful. I know Randy Costa is going to fight the best Guido ever.” After his most recent match in March, Cannetti saw a complete turnaround. The Argentine was able to end a three-fight losing record that lasted nearly four years with a first-round TKO victory over a strong Kris Moutinho. Cannetti felt like he was competing for his UFC job because he hadn't won a fight since 2018. The real sense of emancipation, though, came from how Cannetti felt inside the cage, not from being the winner. Cannetti believed he was underperforming and never thought he lived up to expectations, even in his UFC victories. Cannetti had high hopes when he joined the UFC after fighting in The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America's inaugural season. He began to question his ability to compete at the UFC level because of a peculiar sensation. Cannetti finally felt like himself after making drastic changes to his diet and training regimen before his most recent bout, and it was all he could have hoped for. Cannetti said, "In this final one, I showed up like never before. "I felt fantastic. And for this one, I believe I'm entering a bit better, therefore I believe this battle will reveal my true state. “If I win, then there’s more to give. And if I lose, well, I’m happy with how far I’ve come, but I’ll probably keep training, keep getting better and fight again. This is a decisive fight to see if the Guido that made those changes can continue in this manner or if it was, I don’t know, a luck factor, which I don’t think it was – I truly feel great.” Even though he is just in his early 40s, Cannetti is in the finest physical shape of his professional life. He is hopeful that this is the beginning of a string of victories that will allow him to call it a day in the ring. “I hope that things turn out well, I deserve it,” Cannetti said. “Maybe I’m not champion, but I could win a few consecutive fights and end my career with a little more money in the bank, so I could be more at ease and finish feeling happy, which is what I looked for the most.”

Bo Nickal's hype train is in full swing. In June, the former three-time DI national champion wrestler made his MMA debut. He fought his first fight on Dana White's Contender Series two months later. A little more than a month later, the 'Allen Assassin' signed with the UFC. Nickal is on his way to the big show after three fights and two and a half minutes of cage time. Not only does Nickal now have his first UFC contract, but ESPN reports that the phenom talent has already booked his first fight with his new promotional home. On December 10th, Nickal will face 2020 DWCS signing Jamie Pickett at UFC 282. Pickett (13-8) is coming off consecutive losses for the second time in his six-fight UFC career, having been TKO'd by Dennis Tiuliulin at UFC 279 in September. That defeat came on the heels of a defeat in February against Kyle Daukaus, in which the 'Night Wolf' was defeated by first-round submission. As previously stated, Nickal enters this fight on a 3-0 record to begin his MMA career. On the DWCS season 6 finale fight card, he recently won a 52-second submission victory over Donovan Beard. With his next fight not until early December, this will be the 26-year-longest old's gap between fights to date. UFC 282 is scheduled to take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. No main event has been announced as of yet, but the card is expected to be the target venue for a rematch of Glover Teixeira vs. Jiri Prochazka. Let us know your views on Bo Nickal. Is he a genuine contender in the UFC or just another hype train?

Although Eddie Alvarez was pleased with his choice to join ONE Championship, he has decided to make an effort to leave the organization amicably as his contract and career come to an end. Alvarez previously disclosed that he and ONE Championship were successful in doing so, but he remained vague as to why until now. On Wednesday's broadcast of The MMA Hour, he said that he wants to complete his career in his own nation. “The contract was coming to an end, and I spoke with my agent and I told him, ‘I would like my career to finish up in the United States.’ And when we originally sat down with ONE, the idea was that [they] would progressively move to the U.S.,” Alvarez said on The MMA Hour. “The plan was to have fights in Asia, and then my idea in my head was I would start in Asia, and towards the end of my contract, we would move closer to the U.S. and eventually get a fight there. “Unfortunately, the pandemic threw a wrench into all of those plans and slowed the progression of that up by a lot. “I’m going to more than likely be signing my last contract, and I just want to be fighting here in the United States,” Alvarez continued. “I really want and need to fight in the United States to finish my career here.” “The Underground King” left the UFC following a second-round TKO loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC on FOX 30 in July 2018. Before that, Alvarez and former Bellator president Bjorn Rebney engaged in a very publicized argument. Alvarez claims that no bridges were destroyed in terms of his connection with ONE. “One-hundred percent [we’re on good terms],” Alvarez explained. “I’ve only had one bad split with one company, and it was public. Everybody knew about it. I never want to be involved in anything like that again. I never did ever since then, and I don’t think I ever will. I’m an adult. I know the sport, I know the business. I try to add value to whatever promotion I go to. The people that I sign with, they know that. Besides the one promotion, I never really had a reason to butt heads with anybody.” Alvarez claims he has meetings scheduled with "all of the major personalities" for promotions starting in early October, so that's where he may end up. Alvarez, 38, would be open to joining the PFL, which is one organization that appears to be the choice among the MMA world. This is mainly because he likes the season format. Alvarez would be more than delighted to return to the UFC and Bellator, two American organizations that he helped grow, even though that would give his professional resume a new coat of paint. “Yes [I would return to the UFC],” Alvarez said. “Yeah [I would go back to Bellator]. My messy divorce was with Bjorn Rebney, it wasn’t with Scott Coker. I was freed by Scott Coker. “My issue was never with Bellator the name — I had a spat with the president and that president got fired. “But as long as there’s big fights and big names involved in that company, I’ll more than likely say yes and keep my options open.”

Luke Rockhold is already considering a comeback just one month after his UFC 278 retirement fight against Paulo Costa. Rockhold lost the fight by unanimous decision, but he won over many fans with his gutsy performance and crazy in-cage antics, including smearing blood on Costa's face in the final seconds. Despite being retired, the former Strikeforce and UFC middleweight champion is still training hard in the gym and admits that the prospect of Alex Pereira defeating Israel Adesanya for the title may inspire him to make a comeback. “If I get inspired, if someone inspires me to get back in it…you never know,” Rockhold told Submission Radio in a recent interview. “[Maybe] That Brazilian dude winning the title. Alex Pereira.” “I mean, there’s tons of opportunity. I’m not looking to get out of shape in any way, shape, or form. I really still enjoy the training aspect. I just don’t want to do the part that really hurts me. I’ll do some boxing sparring, but like, you get into full MMA sparring and everything starts to break down when you’re fighting the bad dudes. I’m just gonna work on getting better.” The only thing that would deter Rockhold from returning to the UFC if 'that Brazilian dude' Pereira wins the belt is facing former champion Robert Whittaker in a number one contender's bout. Rockhold was once regarded as one of the world's best middleweight fighters, having won world titles in multiple MMA promotions and defeating fighters such as Chris Weidman, Michael Bisping, and Lyoto Machida, to name a few. He has gone 1-3 in his last four fights and hasn't looked like himself since losing his title to Bisping in 2016.

This Saturday's UFC Fight Night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas will be different because it will be closed to the public and the media. UFC president Dana White told ESPN's Brett Okamoto on Tuesday that he simply wanted to give the media "a night off." However, strawweight fighter Mackenzie Dern told reporters on Wednesday that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to rent out the event, which is why it is being canceled. "I know Mark Zuckerberg rented out the whole event," Dern said at media day in Las Vegas. "I know he'll be there, but I don't know if it's literally him, his wife or if he'll have friends--some type of party. But from someone who wanted a main event with a crowd, [it's now] going to be very, very private." Dern (12-2) will compete in the main event of Saturday's fight card against China's Yan Xiaonan (15-3). Despite the fact that she won't have any fans cheering her on, Dern said it hasn't changed her mindset about the fight. "I'm excited. That just makes me more driven to put on a good show," she said. "I know everyone is watching on TV, but for Mark and whoever is going to be there, put on a show. If that's what they want to see, is a show, then we're going to give a show." Regular media members were notified earlier this week that press credentials for Saturday's event would not be issued. The UFC has not released an official explanation for the decision, but White stated on Tuesday that there is "no big secret" behind it. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto pointed out that Zuckerberg is an MMA fan who recently posted a video of himself doing some drills. The 38-year-old is probably one of the few people who can rent out an entire UFC event. Do you guys think it is right for a huge global personality to influence such an important fight card due to his stature? Will it compromise the focus of the fighters performing that night? Let us know in the comments.